PersonalFinance: Where to look for yields
July 7 (Reuters) - These are scary and depressing times for investors, Atletico-Madrid but especially so for retirees and other folks who need to squeeze thelampsarewhite regular income from their investments. Yields on Treasury notes have fallen from 3.99 percent in April fury-of-five to 2.93 percent last week. Money market mutual funds are yielding 0.08 percent. And they aren't even guaranteed. Anyone who needs yield and safety is in a bind, but there are a few places to go. Here's where to squeeze out some comparatively safe and sizable yields now. air jordan 12 -- Dividend-paying stocks. The decline in stock prices over the last two months has produced a corresponding increase in dividend yields. Furthermore, as interest rates have prada outlet remained at or near historically low levels, they have made dividends look better in cocoisacat comparison. Stolid companies like Bristol Myers Squibb and Clorox Co. are paying out 5.18 percent and 3.56 percent for their investors, bestseekit according to Dividend.com. (www.dividend.com). On that Website, you can find companies yielding as much as 21 percent, but you don't need me to tell you that's kind of risky. Look for conservative companies with a themh long history of increasing their dividend. Remember that banks used to be the best lamp2 dividend payers until they hit the credit crisis and mostly canceled their payouts. And BP used to be a dividend gem until its infamous oil gear-system spill. -- A checking account. It may seem crazy, but some hungry national credit unions and savings banks are offering higher interest on checking accounts than they are on certificates of deposit. The Aspire Federal Credit Union in Leesburg, Virginia, is paying 3.51 percent, yourburdens for example. These accounts typically have restrictions; limited check writing, minimum (or maximum) balances and the like. Find the details at CheckingFinder. (www.checkingfinder.com). -- Online bank CDs. Banks seekitonline that exist only on the Internet tend to pay higher rates on certificates of deposit than those banks that have to invest notsite in bricks and mortar, budge-tenough according to Bankrate.com. The national average for a one-year CD is 0.69 percent. Net-based banks like Ally and Bank of Internet are paying north of 1.5 percent. Find them at Bankrate.com (www.bankrate.com). -- Municipal bonds. Localities are paying more than myhomelandforever 5 percent (and sometimes a lot more than 5 percent) to borrow money, now that many state and municipal governments are in debt trouble, according to data published on MunicipalBonds.com. And their achit-yy interest is free of federal (and sometimes state quick-so and local) taxes. Their chance of default isn't huge, but it can happen. (New York City defaulted in 1975 and Cleveland defaulted in 1978.) To minimize your risks, buy munis through a mutual fund that diversifies its holdings instead of buying individual bonds. -- Corporate bonds. Companies aren't the safe haven that the U.S. Treasury is, so they have to pay more is-kind in interest to attract lenders. You don't have to move down into junk bond territory rli-nes to pick up some of that extra money, either. Average yield for 10-year A rated corporate bonds is around 4.49 percent. Again, you can cancel-out cut your risk by buying these bonds within a diversified mutual fund. Even if one company refuses to pay off conditions-encountered its lenders, that-exactly you'll have many other company bonds in your portfolio. -- Treasury ladders. Treasuries aren't paying much right now, but someday they probably will be. And that will make the Treasuries you're buying now even more risky than you'd think if you were simply looking at their present lousy yields.